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How to Reduce Electricity Bill for your Home with Solar Lights

Can solar power really lower my electricity bill? This is a commonly asked question by most homeowners. Going solar always tops the list of tips on how to lower your home electric bill. So, let us see how to reduce electricity bill for your home with solar lights.

The solar panels entail some investment but the savings you get in your electricity bill will pay for it. In the long term, all you will have is just the savings over the lifetime of the panel systems. If you do not like to purchase solar panels, check if your area has a solar leasing option.

Many years ago, the idea of making lights work by making use of the power of the sun sounded unimaginable. Today, you can find a lot of homes and buildings with solar panels on their roofs. Some street lights are solar-powered as well.

Read on and learn how the rays of the sun can convert into electricity to power lights. It is not magic. It is how science works!

Solar lights consist of a light fixture, a solar panel, control electronics and a battery. Here is how it works.

Charging the Battery

During the day, the battery gets charged by the solar panel. The rays of the sun produce photons. The photons collect and stimulate electrons found in the silicon cells. The wirings of the solar panels knock off the electrons and stores them in the battery.

This process occurs from sunrise to sunset. The height of production happens during mid-day when the sun is at its brightest. The panels though can produce power as long as there is sunlight, regardless of how bright it is.

Storing Power

The battery stores power produced by the sun the entire day. As nighttime approaches, the control electronics notice the reduction in the production of the solar panel. The system stops supplying the battery with power. The light fixture then turns on

Lights On

The light fixture gets power from the battery to turn on. The light fixture can be set to operate two ways. It can operate from dusk to dawn and then turns off. It can also operate until after the battery gets empty and then it turns off.

When the control electronics detects that the solar panel is once again producing power, the light will automatically turn off, too. This means that it is daytime once again and there is no need for the light to be on. This cycle continues every day.

The only difference between small and large solar light systems are in the components and operation profile. The process of collecting power from the sun remains exactly the same.

Small lights have small batteries and will, therefore, be good only for one night or until the battery needs to be charged again.

Large solar lighting systems are for commercial use. In producing lighting systems for commercial use, the location, how it will be used and other specifications of the project need to be considered. For maintenance procedures to be feasible, the system should consist of at least five lights.

What Happens During Rainy Days?

Since the sun powers solar lights, it is logical to think that these lights will not have any source of power during rainy days and even during winter when the sun is not out. Well, this time, logic is not quite right.

New technology allows solar power to be available all year round regardless of the weather conditions. The solar power system will not produce as much power as during the summer months though, but it will still be able to produce solar power. Why is this so? As long as daylight hours are longer, your solar light system batteries will still receive a significant amount of power.

How Can You Save on Solar Lights

Over the recent years, indoor and outdoor solar lighting has been increasing in popularity. Solar lights are not only good for the environment, they can also help save you money on your electricity bill. Here is how you can save on your electricity bill.

Instead of drawing energy from the power company, your home will be drawing power from solar panels powered by the rays of the sun. Some homes store their solar power in batteries. The system is the same though except that solar panels produce more electricity, tons of electricity in fact.

Even with solar panels, you will still need to be connected to the grid. Since solar panels generate electricity from the sun, it will not be able to generate as much energy to power your entire home during rainy days or when the sun is not out.

Since you will not be too dependent on the grid for all of your home’s power requirements, your electricity will not be too high.

When you use solar energy, your electric meter will register how much electricity you consumed from the grid and how much electricity was contributed by your solar panels.

While you will still be charged for the electricity you consumed and for being connected to the grid, you will be getting discounts for using solar energy. Expect them to pay lower electricity bills.

An average American household can make use of electricity generated by solar panels to as much as 80% of their power requirement with an appropriately sized solar panel system. This could translate to savings of over $100 per month.

If your state offers solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs), you can earn on the side by selling some of the power produced by your solar panels. You can use this extra income to pay your lowered electricity bill which becomes in principle even lowered.

By using solar energy, you will be receiving energy credits. These energy credits make your energy bill even much lower.

Solar powers are maintenance free and are built to last for long years. So, the longer you use your solar panels, the more savings you will get. The investment you made for the solar panels will get paid by the savings you get. In the long term, it will be just all savings. These are how to reduce electricity for your home with solar lights.

If you’re saving money, solar lights are the necessary option. Outdoorsleeping.net has got all the resources you need to protect your money.